In response to the demands of the ring delegation, President Tsai ing-wen agreed to list 2 billion "Marine Green measures" to develop "co-employment of agriculture and fishery" to solve the shortage of workers.

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"Earth Day" is approaching. Yesterday (15), environmental protection groups met President Tsai ing-wen, and the "Taiwan Ocean Group" received a promise from the President that it would allocate 2 billion yuan for "marine green measures" in the future to move towards sustainable fishing. It will also assess the feasibility of the "co-employment of agriculture and fishing" system, so that fishermen can be transferred to work in farmland during the fishing moratorium, thus reducing the burden on fishing boat employers and alleviating the shortage of agricultural workers.

Lin Ailong, chairman of the Sea Dragon King Love Earth Association, a conservation group concerned about the sea, made a request to the president yesterday that Taiwan is surrounded by the sea, but "there are no fish in the sea." both ecology and industry are in a dilemma, and lack of funds is a major problem.

She said that since 2002, Taiwan's oil subsidy for fishing vessels has been reduced from 28 per cent to 14 per cent, an average shortfall of about NT $2 billion a year, but only more than NT $100m has been returned to the Fisheries Department as a fishing moratorium subsidy. At the same time, the annual budget of the Council of Agriculture is over NT $100 billion, and it has even increased by 10 billion this year, but the budget of the Fisheries Department has dropped year after year, to only NT $3.8 billion this year. "there is no way to make any proposal for marine conservation." The president instructed the Council of Agriculture on the spot that "money should be given to others."

Lin Ailong further pointed out that today's phenomenon of overfishing has a historical burden, that is, the employment of foreign fishermen. Once fishing is suspended, shipowners still have to pay foreign fishermen, and economic pressure forces them to continue to fish at sea. If a platform for "co-employment of agriculture and fishery" is established to enable deckhands to be transferred to agriculture where manpower is needed during the fishing moratorium, so as to supplement the shortage of labour by co-operating with farmers, and at the same time creating breathing space for the fishing industry and the ocean, it will be killing two birds with one stone. Tsai ing-wen said that she could ask the administrative organ to study and formulate it.

(left) President Tsai ing-wen (neutral) Chen Jizhong, Vice Chairman of the Council of Agriculture (Photo courtesy of Huantuan)

A multi-pronged approach of "Marine Green measures" to save the current situation of fishing in the jungle

Lin Ailong hopes that with this funding for marine green measures, the infrastructure and guidance mechanism for "fish unloading declaration" will be implemented, and electronic scales will be installed in 224 fishing ports and sent back to the central database of the Fisheries Department. It can also be used in the transformation of fishing methods, including exit subsidies when transforming powerful fishing methods into friendly fishing methods, as well as subsidies for fishing moratorium during the spawning or growing season of fish. In addition, large-scale projects such as the economic research survey of fishing villages and the promotion of national sustainable seafood labels are all in urgent need of funding.

The full installation of AIS (automatic ship tracking system) is also an important part of the plan, but there are not many fishing boats installed at present. Shi Junyi pointed out that the installation of AIS can maintain the safety of fishing vessels at sea, keep abreast of ship movements within the range of effective reception, and immediately warn fishing vessels to avoid collision crisis. Fishing vessels can also be monitored for violations, and further, combined with catch data, a cloud fishing and unloading declaration system can be constructed.

Shi Junyi said that the appropriate use of the funds will reduce fishing behavior, improve marine resources, and ensure the safety of fishing vessels.

Co-employment of agriculture and fishery seems ideal, but fishermen question: if you go up the mountain and go to the sea, can the fishermen adapt?

Since 2018, Taiwan's mackerel fishing boats have been suspended for nearly two months a year. Shi Junyi said that the biggest complaint of fishermen is that all foreign fishermen have to be paid according to their salaries. In the future, if idle labor can be transferred to agriculture, which is short of workers, the economic pressure on shipowners can be alleviated.

Shih Chun-Yi says that about 8,000 foreign fishermen are employed in China. "We hope to establish a reemployment platform through fishing associations and farmers' associations to make information transparent," to mediate with employers of fishermen who have suspended fishing and farmers who are out of work. In particular, large mackerel and scad fishing vessels and trawlers employ a large number of foreign fishermen and have a strong fishing force. if the "co-employment of agriculture and fishing" is successful, it can increase the willingness to suspend fishing of these large fishing vessels and help the restoration of marine resources.

However, some fishermen were highly skeptical about this proposal. Captain Wu Chi-hung in Taichung asked, "if you want a fisherman to go up the mountain and go to the sea all at once, can you guarantee that he can adapt?" What if he escapes if he can't get used to it? How many people do you think are running away now? "

Captain Hong, who currently employs two foreign fishermen, has encountered fishermen running away before, and it will take several months to reapply, so they have to struggle on their own when they are short of manpower. He stressed: "if the government wants to do something, it must have supporting measures and first listen to public opinion." If there is to be co-employment of agriculture and fishery, the government needs to guarantee that once the fisherman runs away, he will provide manpower supplement within a short period of time, otherwise he would rather let the fisherman rest on the boat and pay his salary. "who dares to gamble on this?"

However, the Fisheries Department also said that this is only a preliminary idea, and that actual implementation still needs to be considered to comply with the Labor Standards Law, because at present, foreign workers are not open to agriculture, so they still have to discuss extensively with the Ministry of Labour and people from all walks of life, and will listen to the views of fishermen.

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